Status of Women Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2017

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

That's a great question. I think we have a number of opportunities related to the organizations, both the regional development agencies as well as the banks, BDC and EDC.

We've started something called the Accelerated Growth Service to get a number of these organizations to work together to help accelerate growth for companies that are acceleration-ready; so not at the start-up space, but in the growth space. I think that the more we can focus on women entrepreneurs working with the organizations that actually bring them together, the better we will coordinate with their needs, because the needs are obviously in access to market, access to financing, and access to talent. Those are the three pieces that you always need to accelerate growth and to create viable enterprises.

The more we can galvanize the institutions that exist and actually specifically focus, the more likely we are to succeed.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

That's great. It's an interesting initiative that's a key part of the Atlantic growth strategy. I'm from Nova Scotia, and there was an announcement recently around that.

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

The AGS with the AGS.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Yes, that's right, not complicating things at all.

With respect to that initiative, but not specific to Atlantic Canada, will there be an analysis to make sure that the firms you target are both helping female entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, as well as targeting industries that are going to help benefit women generally?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

That is our hope. We have really been at the initial stages of adopting this program to try to figure out what the gaps are in terms of our ability to offer a more seamless service. With it still being in its infancy, we haven't been that ambitious, but I do think over time it will be developed to do that.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

You mention as well that women own businesses at a much lesser rate, that it's not just a matter of their inability to scale up at the same rate as men, as the statistics suggest. Are there certain things that we could be doing to help spur entrepreneurialism with more women in Canadian communities?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Yes, I do think that a lot of the things that we have discussed here, both this morning and with our previous panel, are really important, focusing on ensuring that women and girls from a young age are encouraged to go into STEM areas, including engineering, and also that we start to talk about entrepreneurship as a viable career path.

I had one young future entrepreneur say to me that, when he told his mother he wanted to be an entrepreneur, she said, “What is that, French for unemployed?”

That's an attitude that we need to really overcome. So that really stuck with me. I thought, oh my God, that's not crazy. I think we really need to focus on entrepreneurship as a viable option for young women and encourage them to succeed in that area.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I may come back to you, if I have time, but I wanted to shift briefly to Mr. Murphy.

One of the previous witnesses on our last panel suggested that, as StatCan's data would show, targeted transfers from the federal level do help people get out of that low-income threshold. I assume the same would be true with respect to the poverty line. In your opinion, are these targeted transfers effective strategies? I'm thinking of the Canada child benefit, CPP, OAS, GIS for low-income single seniors, and those sorts of things. Is that an effective strategy?

[Doug Murphy]

That is an effective strategy. I think I can actually answer Mr. Serré's question too.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Perfect.

[Doug Murphy]

Undoubtedly, the Canada child benefit will make a different. Nine out of 10 families benefit from that, and it is targeted to those families that need it most. So we will see, undoubtedly, poverty reduction impacts of that.

On the issue of single seniors, this is an outlier. Generally, we've done very well on seniors' poverty, but single seniors still have high rates.

In Mr. Heisz's presentation he actually showed a bar chart of the impact of using the old age security guaranteed income supplement in reducing seniors' poverty. As of last July, the guaranteed income supplement, which is the most highly targeted program for low-income seniors, was increased by about $950. In total about 900,000 seniors will benefit from that. So, yes, it is a very effective tool.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Are there certain other targeted benefits that don't exist now that we could potentially recommend and that would have a similarly substantive impact on poverty or low income?

[Doug Murphy]

I think that as we engage and talk to experts on the poverty reduction strategy, we will certainly hear about that instrument for addressing poverty.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'm changing gears but I'm still with you, Mr. Murphy.

EI sickness benefits are something I find important. There's an interesting dissonance between the compassionate care benefit, which was recently increased—I thought that was a great thing—and the EI sickness benefits. I think it is now 15 weeks for the sickness benefits and 26 weeks, if my memory serves me correctly, for compassionate care.

The issue I have is that there are now fewer benefits for someone who gets sick and has to leave work than for someone who needs to take care of that person. This issue is important to me.

I have a constituent who lost her husband and only qualified for 15 weeks of EI support. She has made it her cause to try to bring about a policy change to extend that, because, as in many other families, the husband was the breadwinner in their family. It caused them great turmoil because her capacity to enter the workforce did not meet their needs.

Is this something that you think would make a difference? Is there anything in the works to bump up sickness benefits?

[Doug Murphy]

Thank you.

I think I'll respectfully defer to my colleague on that.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Sorry. Yes, of course.

[Andrew Brown]

Thanks for the question.

You are absolutely correct that there are 15 weeks available through the EI program for a worker who falls sick, whereas for a caregiver providing care for someone at the end of their life, and only in those end-of-life situations, there is up to 26 weeks of caregiving income support available to the caregiver through the EI program.

This was one of the things that came out of the consultations held at the end of last year on changes to EI parental and caregiving benefits. A key commitment of the government is to provide a more inclusive compassionate care benefit so it would cover more situations than simply the end of life.

Consultations followed budget 2016, and there was a commitment to follow through over the course of the mandate. We're now continuing to analyze the input we receive from various stakeholders and Canadians, to support the government moving forward on that commitment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

I want to thank all of our witnesses who have been with us today. Certainly, we reserve the right to call you back later. If there are things that came up that involve data to be sent to the clerk, I invite you to do that.

Just for the information of the other committee members, the reason I have ended witness testimony at this point is that I want to give some information to you.

You may be aware that Bill C-309, the gender equality bill, is coming to our committee. So we will have our first chance to look at some legislation. In order to look at that, suggested amendments to the legislation are due to the clerk by February 16. That includes everything in the bill, its preamble as well its clause-by-clause section. I ask each of the committee members to take a look at the bill, prepare any amendments you would like to see, and make sure that the clerk has those by February 16.

The intent is that during the week of February 21, depending on the availability of Sven, the sponsor of the bill, we will do the review of C-309. In addition, the new minister has her mandate letter. We will be inviting the minister to appear that same week, and you may certainly prepare questions or anything you would like to have her say to us.

Thank you again for your co-operation today. We will see you on Tuesday.